The most important characteristics of optical microscopes are the lateral resolution and the contrast of the image generated by the microscope, which contrast can be specified by Rayleigh resolution and the optical transfer functions (OTF). The conventional optical microscope is unable to generate an image of objects smaller than the Rayleigh resolution threshold. Resolution is most frequently improved by increasing the numerical aperture of the objective applied, but this is a costly approach in addition to having theoretical and technical limitations. The nearest prior art solutions are considered to be the traditional optical and confocal microscopes. Such confocal microscope is described for example in J. B. Dawley's Handbook of biological confocal microscopy 2nd ed. (1995).